. And these are the births of Isaac, the son of Abraham. That this signifies the Lord‘s Divine rational, from which is the Divine natural, is evident from the signification of "births " as being derivations (n. 1145, 1255, 1330), namely, derivations of faith when faith is treated of, and derivations of the church when the church is treated of, just as above the derivations of the spiritual church were signified by the "births" of Ishmael (n. 3263). But here, since the "births" are predicated of the Lord, it is Divine births that are meant, namely, that from the Divine Itself is born the Divine rational, which is signified by Isaac being begotten by Abraham; and that from the Divine rational is the Divine natural, which is signified by Esau and Jacob being from Isaac; for by Esau and Jacob the Lord’s Divine natural is represented-by Esau as to good, and by Jacob as to truth-as will be shown in what now follows. This is what is here signified by the "births."
. Abraham begat Isaac. That this signifies the Divine rational from the Divine Itself, is evident from the representation of Abraham, as being the Divine Itself; and from the representation of Isaac, as being the Divine rational, as already frequently explained.
. And Isaac was a son of forty years. That this signifies from His own power by temptation combats, is evident from the representation of Isaac, as being the Divine rational, as already frequently explained; from the signification of "forty," as being temptations (n. 730, 862); and from the signification of "years," as being states (n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788). Hence the internal sense of these words is that the Lord made His rational Divine also as to truth, by temptation combats, thus by His own power. That the Lord by His own power through temptations admitted into Himself made all the human in Himself Divine, was shown above, (n. 1616, 1663, 1668, 1690, 1787, 2083, 2523, 2632, 2776, 3030, 3043, 3141).
. When he took Rebekah. That this signifies the conjunction of Divine truth, is evident from the representation of Rebekah, as being Divine truth adjoined to Divine good in the rational, the birth of which from the natural man was treated of in the preceding chapter.
. The daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to himself for a woman. That this signifies the quality and state, is evident from the representation of Bethuel and Laban, and from the signification of "Aram" and "Paddan-aram," as being those things which involve the origin as to quality and state of the Divine truth represented by Rebekah; but what is represented by each, namely, by Bethuel and by Laban, and what is signified by "Aram" or Syria, was explained in the preceding chapter. The reason why these things are again said, is that in the following sections the Lord‘s natural is treated of. The Lord’s natural could not be made Divine until truth had been adjoined to His rational, and until this had been made Divine; for the influx into the natural must needs be from the Divine good of the rational through the Divine truth therein; seeing that all the life of the natural man, as regards knowing and acting intelligently, is therefrom; for the rational is that which ordinates all things in the natural, and according to the orderly arrangement of things therein has them conveniently in view; the rational being like a higher sight, which when it looks into the memory-knowledges of the natural man, looks upon a field as it were beneath itself. The light of this sight is the light of truth, but the origin of the light is from good in the rational. But more on this subject hereafter.
GENESIS 25:19-20previous
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